1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a machine for cambering, forming, folding or bending bars, wires or section pieces.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 37 CFR 1.98
Chairs, driers, light fittings, display stands and numerous objects are produced from bars, tubes or section pieces that are bent or folded into complex shapes, sometimes in all three dimensions. These shapes are produced by means of bending machines which deform the elements without breaking them, keeping crushing to a minimum.
These bending machines are becoming increasingly sophisticated in order to produce components of ever increasing complexity, repeatably, with automation, and at high production rates.
It is often necessary to perform two or even more bending operations in different planes on a tube, bar or section piece, and this is achieved by disengaging the tube after each stage and then repositioning it, having pivoted it axially.
Conventionally, bending machines have different bending heads for producing three-dimensional deformations of the elements in two or more stages as need be. With a view to fully automating these machines, it is absolutely essential for the element that is to be deformed to be repositioned in the machine after each bending operation, and this operation is performed by orienting heads positioned between the bending elements or by bending heads that allow numerous deformations, such as those described in the applicant company's document EP 1 272 293.
In many cases it is desirable to deform tubes, wires, section pieces or bars in several planes and in an optimum manner without them having to be repositioned by an orienting device which leads to potential problems of positioning them in the machine. Bending machines of the prior art conventionally are of two types, draw bending machines and compression bending machines.
These two categories of machine, which will be described later on in the description, have common shortcomings:                the bending jaw in the machine often marks the tube,        it is difficult to perform multiple bending operations when the distances between bends are very short or even zero,        it is impossible to produce parts the bent portions of which interfere with the machine or the tooling as a result of there being just one direction of bending, and        it is difficult to perform bending operations on tubes that have accessories attached to their perimeter.        
It is therefore an objective of the invention to resolve these main difficulties by proposing a bending machine that has a bending head of a novel type.